


Winters Breath

by hinotoriii



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Nicaise Lives, Fluff, M/M, Post-Kings Rising
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-12 06:29:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7924129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hinotoriii/pseuds/hinotoriii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Damen's first winter in Vere, as well as the first time he really sees snow. He finds he enjoys the new experience.<br/>Which makes it more of a pity when his morning walk with Laurent takes an unexpected surprise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Winters Breath

**Author's Note:**

> 'Don’t you dare throw that snowba-, goddammit!'
> 
> Prompt fill request for this [drabble meme](http://mythalsfavour.tumblr.com/post/149455837853/send-me-a-pairing-and-a-number-and-ill-write-you).
> 
> Also referred to by the very rough, very long working title of _‘the AU with Nicaise warm and safe after the death of the Regent + he spends the rest of his teenage years pulling jokes on Damen and looking up to Laurent. Oh, and Laurent brought him a pony’._
> 
> ... I did say it was a long working title.

Damen has never seen snow before.

As he looks towards the outside grounds he finds himself somewhat awestruck. All he can see is white, with delicate snowdrops still falling from the sky like soft balls of cotton. He can still feel the chill in the air which had caused him to awaken from his sleep in the first place, the sensation of it ever present yet somehow refreshing. Even so, Damen could see why Laurent had been so adamant in desiring a thicker blanket.

Akielos didn’t have this. Akielos was warmth and sun almost constantly, the seasons never so clear and obvious as Damen had come to learn them to be here in Vere. The only snow Damen knew his homeland to have was high up in the mountains, not that anyone really travelled far enough upwards to reach it. One could sometimes spot the dusting of it upon the mountaintops in the distance, but never all that clearly. It certainly wasn’t something one would wake up to find.

Damen wonders what it might feel like beneath his fingers. Would snow be something that felt soft to touch, or would it feel more solid? Would it be like a painful freeze? Was it as cool as the air around him right now, or was it perhaps cooler?

“Damen.”

The sound of his name spoken from familiar lips causes Damen to slowly turn his body towards it, the word and the person it belongs to pulling his attention to their gravity. He notices Laurent instantly - his appearance hinting to the fact he has only recently woken despite how he sits in their bed, the sheets and his blanket pooled around him. Damen notes how Laurent watches him in curious amusement, his hand sliding towards his side slightly as he sits up a little more.

“What are you doing?”

The image Laurent paints before him still manages to blind Damen briefly, for it is something only he is blessed to see. Relaxed and content, with hair that is slightly messier than he would ever allow it be throughout the day Laurent somehow manages to radiate happiness. There is even a small, very rare smile pulling at his lips - something which Damen has been noticing Laurent has shared more of with each day that passes.

Damen points over his shoulder, still watching Laurent as he speaks.

“It’s been snowing.”

Laurent leans to one side slightly, attempting to catch sight at the landscape from the window which Damen is currently blocking with his body. He manages to notice though, eyes once again meeting Damen’s after.

“So it has.”

“Everything is white out there,” says Damen.

“That is what tends to happen when it snows, yes.”

“No, I mean _everything._ The ground, the trees, the rooftops…”

Damen’s words drift off. He turns back to the window, once more looking out at the white world before him.

A brief moment passes before Damen hears the sound of movement. When he does he knows it’s Laurent moving; rising up and out of their bed.

“I forgot that it doesn’t snow in Akielos,” Laurent says.

Damen hears the sound of Laurent’s footsteps as he walks to stand beside him. Once he enters his field of vision he notices that Laurent has wrapped the blanket around his shoulders. Likely warding of the cold chill surrounding them. Laurent had always felt the cold more than him, after all.

“Snow is common in Vere for this time of year,” Laurent continues to say. “You saw what happens in our autumn seasons. This is our winters.”

“So this lasts …”

“Days. Sometimes weeks, depending on how heavy it falls or how well it settles.” Laurent looks towards him, and Damen turns to face him in return. “I did tell you there was a reason to wrap up warm when we came out here. I wasn’t lying about the cold.”

“I never thought you were. It’s just -”

“Strange?”

“More or less,” Damen replies. He once again looks back out of the window.

“Winter happens to be my favourite season,” Laurent says after a peaceful moment between them. “When I was younger Auguste and I used to play outside in the snow until we were eventually told to come back inside before either one of us caught a cold. Even once we did return we’d still find ways to entertain ourselves. We often used to sit before the open fire in our library. If Auguste was busy speaking with Father I would read there by myself while I waited for him to arrive. He always would. Sometimes he’d bring a chess set with him and we’d play together as the snow continued to fall heavily outside. Other times he’d have warm drinks made for the two of us, and we’d spend an entire afternoon together talking about everything and nothing all at once.”

The memory sounds lovely to Damen. He could almost picture it in his mind, despite not sharing a similar experience himself. He dare not taint such an image by considering himself and Kastor in Laurent and Auguste’s places though, not after how all the memories he holds of his own brother are now tainted with so many hidden layers of hatred and lying. Laurent’s memory of Auguste however is both pure and loving, and just from the snapshot he’s been shown of a winter from Laurent’s childhood Damen can understand why it has left such a positive effect on him. Why it is Laurent holds it so close to himself, and also why, because of it, Laurent holds fondness for the season itself.

“Get dressed. Into something _warm_ , preferably. ” Laurent suddenly says, breaking Damen out of his thoughts as he starts to walk away. Damen looks towards his back with a puzzled expression.

“What are you up to?”

“We’re going for a morning walk outside. So, _get dressed.”_  
  


* * *

  
It’s much colder outside than it had been indoors, not to mention much colder than Damen is used to.

“What is winter like in Akielos?” Laurent asks.

He’s walking beside Damen, the both of them dressed warmly in a Veretian style. The fabric feels slightly odd and almost restraining against Damen’s build - after all he is still trying to get used to the differences in the two very varied styles - yet it is much more pleasant preference than freezing.

“Warm, still much warmer than it ever is here. It’s a little cooler than it is the rest of the year though. There are a lot more storms in the winter time however, and it rains often. It find it oddly relaxing when it chooses to storm and rain through the night.”

“Somehow, I can still see myself needing to take shelter in whatever shade there was,” says Laurent. Damen breathes out a brief laugh, the cold air he exhales dancing lightly past his lips.

“It’s not as bad as it is in the summer months. If anything you’d probably like it; when it rains it seems to clear the air, making it seem fresher.”

“Is that so?” asks Laurent, rhetorically. Damen feels the way his eyes gaze at him for a long thoughtful moment, before turning to look ahead at the path they were walking. “Then perhaps next year we will stay there, so I can decide for myself if what you’ve told me is indeed true.”

Damen knows wherever it is they’ll end up the following year will depend entirely on what their duties demand from them at the time. It has, after all, proven to be no easy feat in working together to merge their two kingdoms as one, and although the progress is being made it is slow and tentative.

Yet even whilst bearing that truth in mind Damen can’t stop the smile he feels is forming in hearing Laurent voicing his interest in one day visiting Akielos during its winter months. The ways in which Laurent still manages to surprise him at nearly every turn are one of the many reasons why Damen loves him as much as he does, and Laurent is likely already aware of the effect his words have had on making him happy.

It’s probably exactly why he asked about winter in Akielos in the first place.

Damen’s joy doesn’t last him for long, however. As he and Laurent continue to walk there is a moment where he feels something collide with the back of his head. Damen stops in his tracks instantly, raising a hand to touch at where the ghost of whatever it was that had hit him remains …

… Only to find as he removes and looks down at his hand that it is covered in snow.

“What -”

Damen and Laurent turn, and Damen scans around for a sign of whoever it was that had hit him with the cold texture that still sat in his hand.

He doesn’t have to look far, however.

Sitting nearby on a wall Damen notices the figure of a boy wrapped up in a warm black and white coat, the neck of which is clearly from some kind of white fur. One of his legs dangle in a carefree manner, the other keeping him steady upon the wall. Damen catches a familiar sparkle of something hanging from one of his ears beneath his wavy brown hair – a single earring which is sapphire in colour.

“Nicaise. Did you just throw snow at the back of my head?”

Nicaise looks towards Damen in a somewhat bored fashion. Whilst lifting a hand he blinks, the long length of his lashes showing a gracefulness which he has never shown towards Damen. His attention turns towards the raised hand, as if inspecting his glove for any signs of imperfections upon the leather.

“Your rather large, barbarian head was in the way of my snowball. It isn’t _my fault_ if it ended up hitting you.”

Damen rubbed at the back of his neck once more, briefly attempting to brush away what snow remained there. He felt Laurent’s own gloved hands brush against his as he attempts to help, clearing it away better than Damen had himself.

“I thought you were going to visit your new horse today,” Laurent says, barely even phased by what has just transpired between Damen and Nicaise. Damen watches Nicaise’s gaze turn to Laurent.

“I _am,_ ” He says. “But I enjoy walking through the grounds myself sometimes too. I didn’t expect anyone else to be out here at this hour of the morning.”

“And yet, here we all are.”

Damen’s voice causes Nicaise’s attention to pull towards him once more. Laurent steps away having cleared the snow away from Damen’s neck, not that it is something Nicaise seems particularly happy with. Especially not as Damen catches sight of the way his hand has began gathering up more.

“Don’t,” Damen warns, holding up a finger towards Nicaise. Nicaise arches an eyebrow, regarding the words as if it were more like a dare. “Don’t think about throwing that -”

Damen doesn’t get to finish speaking.

Because Nicaise decides to throw the snowball.

Hitting his goal straight into Damen’s face.

Damen is motionless for a moment, unable to comprehend what’s just happened. From somewhere close to him he hears the attempt of poorly suppressed laughter. Laurent’s poorly suppressed laughter at that. Damen wipes a hand over his face, brushing away most of the snow.

“What did I _just_ say?”

“You were in the way. _Again,_ ” Nicaise groans. “Honestly Damianos, if you don’t want to get hit then _move away from the snowballs._ ”

“Why don’t you stop _throwing them_ in my direction in the first place?” Damen replies, irritatedly. Nicaise replies with a half hearted shrug.

“How do you know I wasn’t already throwing them before you first walked past me?”

Beside him Laurent’s shoulders continue to shake, and Damen gives him a disbelieving look.

“Your laughter is encouraging him.”

“I don’t know what you are insinuating. I’m not laughing,” says Laurent, looking towards Damen. Damen can see that he’s still trying to hold his laughter in – again, rather poorly. He huffs out a sigh.

“The two of you are utterly terrible influences on one another.”


End file.
